Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

Ray Honeyford was one of the first of Europe's free speech martyrs to Islam. As far back as the 1980s, he saw the consequences of Muslim colonisation at first hand and spoke out against them. As a result, he was hounded out of his job and never worked again.

Ray Honeyford, who has died aged 77, was the unknown headmaster of a school in Bradford until, in January 1984, he published an article critical of multiculturalism and its effect on British education; widely accused of racism, he was subjected to a barrage of abuse, forced to take early retirement, and never taught again.

Honeyford had been headmaster of Drummond Middle School — where some 95 per cent of the pupils were Asian — for four years when he wrote his article for the Right-wing Salisbury Review. Local politicians and pressure groups responded with a campaign to get him fired; he received death threats, and had to enter his own school under police protection owing to the presence of pickets. His health, and that of his wife, began to suffer, and in December 1985 he accepted early retirement.

Honeyford’s article did not pull its punches, and his critics viewed some of his language as intemperate. He referred to “a growing number of Asians whose aim is to preserve as intact as possible the values and attitudes of the Indian subcontinent within a framework of British social and political privilege, ie to produce Asian ghettoes”, and “an influential group of black intellectuals of aggressive disposition, who know little of the British traditions of understatement, civilised discourse and respect for reason”.

He cast doubt on whether his pupils were best served by the local educational authority allowing such practices as the withdrawal of children from school for months at a time in order to go “home” to Pakistan on the grounds that this was appropriate to the children’s native culture.

He added: “Those of us working in Asian areas are encouraged, officially, to 'celebrate linguistic diversity’, ie applaud the rapidly mounting linguistic confusion in those growing number of inner city schools in which British-born Asian children begin their mastery of English by being taught in Urdu.” Honeyford accused the “race relations lobby” of employing “a dubious, officially approved argot which functions to maintain a whole set of questionable beliefs and attitudes about education and race attitudes which have much more to do with professional opportunism than the educational progress of ethnic minority children”.

“The term 'racism’,” he wrote, “functions not as a word with which to create insight, but as a slogan designed to suppress constructive thought. It conflates prejudice and discrimination ... It is the icon word of those committed to the race game. And they apply it with the same sort of mindless zeal as the inquisitors voiced 'heretic’ or Senator McCarthy spat out 'Commie’.”

Meanwhile, Honeyford said, there was “a small but growing group of dispossessed, indigenous parents whose schools are, as a direct result of the multiracial dimension, failing their children”.

This was not the first time that Honeyford had gone public with his views. In November 1982 he had written an article for the Times Educational Supplement (TES) attacking misplaced multiculturalism and political correctness in schools.

It was the piece in The Salisbury Review, however, that led to his downfall. The then mayor of Bradford, Mohammed Ajeeb, called for Honeyford’s dismissal, because the headmaster had shown “an inclination to demonstrate prejudice against certain sections of our community”.

Honeyford was suspended in April 1985, but reinstated five months later after an appeal to the High Court. Some parents then formed an action group and kept their children away from school, and in December 1985 Honeyford accepted a financial settlement and took early retirement. Drummond Middle School was eventually burned down in an arson attack.It has since been rebuilt and has been renamed Iqra Community Primary School, though it is still known locally as the Drummond.

You can read the entire original Salisbury Review article he wrote here. It's well worth reading. Here is an extract:

In the absence of the coinage of honest discourse, one can perhaps make a start by reporting and commenting on one's everyday experiences. I recall, for instance, the meeting called to explain to Asian parents the importance of regular school attendance for their offspring's future. A very high proportion of Asian immigrants have a habit of sending children to the Indian sub continent during term time with obvious, deleterious educational consequences. Not only is the practice inadvisable, it is almost certainly illegal though no local education authority has had the courage to bring a test case, and the Department of Education and Science turns a blind eye.

After much badgering from the schools, the local authority had agreed try to impose on brown parents the same obligations it demanded from white and black parents with regard to school attendance. Against all normal expectations the meeting was packed. There had obviously been a local 'three line whip' from the Pakistani leadership. It quickly became evident that what had been proposed as an act of reconciliation, based on the school's concern for the child, was to descend into a noisy and unseemly demonstration of sectarian bitterness.

The hysterical political temperament of the Indian sub continent became evident an extraordinary sight in an English School Hall. There was much shouting and fist waving. The local authority was accused of 'racism'; the chairman insulted. One anglicised Asian stood near the door and, at regular intervals, shouted 'bullshit' at the chair. The disorder was orchestrated. Questions were always preceded by a nod from a Muslim leader. A half-educated and volatile Sikh usurped the privileges of the chair by deciding who was to speak.

The confusion was made worse by the delays occasioned by the need for interpreting many of the audience had no English though there have been freely available English classes in the area for at least a decade. I raised my hand to speak several times but was ignored. The atmosphere was highly charged and threatening. I left before the end, bitterly disappointed.

Needless to say, the absenteeism of Asian pupils abroad continues. The authorities have simply given up. And I am left with the ethically indefensible task of complying with a school attendance policy which is determined not, as the law requires, on the basis of individual parental responsibility but by the parent's country of origin a blatant and officially sanctioned policy of racial discrimination.

My disappointment was compounded by a sense of irony. These people, who now so vehemently accused the authorities of denying them a right which, in reality was a privilege no other parents enjoyed, and no other group of immigrants had contemplated claiming these same people enjoyed rights, privileges and aspirations unheard of in their country of origin.

4
comments:

Ray Honeyford never used the word "muslim" even once. Cheradenine Zakalalawe (who's name is impoosible to pronounce!) has made a pityful attempt to put in the word "muslim" in order to deviate the whole matter raised by Mr Ray Honeyford. If you read the actual document Honeyford actually refered to all ethnic minorities. Cheradenine Zakalawe concludes to say that Honeyford never worked again. This is also wrong. Get your facts right! Pee brain!

Ray Honeyford never used the word "muslim" even once. Cheradenine Zakalalawe (who's name is impoosible to pronounce!) has made a pityful attempt to put in the word "muslim" in order to deviate the whole matter raised by Mr Ray Honeyford. If you read the actual document Honeyford actually refered to all ethnic minorities. Cheradenine Zakalawe concludes to say that Honeyford never worked again. This is also wrong. Get your facts right! Pee brain!